


Meet My Baby

by miso_cheonsa



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff and Crack, M/M, Single Parent Joshua, slight crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 02:38:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18682438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miso_cheonsa/pseuds/miso_cheonsa
Summary: In which Jeonghan meets Joshua's child or something.





	Meet My Baby

  
It’s a Tuesday afternoon. The sun is scorching hot outside, so Jeonghan couldn’t be more thankful that the place he is in has a working air conditioner. Summer vacation is a gift to all university students, especially for an incoming senior Biology major from Seoul University like Yoon Jeonghan. He is aware that next semester, he will be dealing with his thesis as the final requirement for his degree. Sleepless nights await him in a few months, so he should be getting all the rest he can get this vacation.

  
But instead, Jeonghan sighs as he holds a price tag gun in his hands, aiming on the canned goods in front of him. He needs cash so he can save up for his car’s (actually his dad’s, but he’s not around, so it’s his) maintenance.

  
The car is only three years old but has went through so many bumps and scratches when he was still learning how to drive. His mom has spent thousands of dollars fixing the car and has finally had enough. She told Jeonghan to earn his own money to spend on the car.

  
So here he is at the supermarket near his university, earning 5,000 won per hour.

  
He thinks the salary is pretty decent for an easy task of arranging goods on the shelf and lifting a few heavy boxes. What Jeonghan can’t stand is the boring nature that he is in. He drives his car 15 minutes before the call time so he arrives just in time, lifts boxes filled with manufactured items, places them on the shelves, goes for a lunch break and encounters weird old ladies who he thinks have a thing for him (ew), goes back to his station, tags the items with their prices, and he repeats this until it’s closing time. Being the teenager that Jeonghan is, he looks for excitement everywhere. He knows it will be rare to find some action there, but he can’t help but hope.

  
One month after the start of his job there, excitement is still yet to come for the college student.

 

In the middle of tagging prices on some kind of cereal, he sees a guy, probably around his age, wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with a brown vest on top and khaki pants. He has cat-like? deer-like? bunny-like? features which Jeonghan can’t figure out why they were attractive. He notices the sweater paws the man is pulling off. “ _Cute_ ,” Jeonghan thinks. “ _Maybe this is the excitement I’ve been waiting for._ ”

  
Jeonghan can’t keep his attention away from the cute guy. Said man eyes on the items on the shelf that Jeonghan had arranged earlier, the milk section, checking prices and labels, and looks back at the list he is holding, probably a grocery list. Jeonghan’s forehead creased. “ _What’s a college student doing with a grocery list?_ ” he wonders. He’s been going back and forth, lifting a box of milk in his hands, and putting it back on the shelf. “ _So he’s the picky kind, huh? Interesting_.” Jeonghan smiles.

  
A minute later, the guy turns to Jeonghan and catches the employee looking at him. Jeonghan’s eyes widens for a moment in panic before he thinks “ _I am Yoon Jeonghan, resident heartthrob of the Biology Department in Seoul University. I got this_.”

  
He flashes a smile for the cutely confused customer. Jeonghan confidently makes his way to the man and asks him “Sorry, but I couldn’t help but notice that you’ve been staring at the products for a while now.” Jeonghan puts a hand on his nape in an attempt to look cute. “May I help you with anything?”

  
The customer looks at him with unsure eyes but proceeds to smile and talk to the worker. “Yeah, actually.” The guy looks at the cartons of milk in front of them.

  
Jeonghan loses focus for a moment when he saw the man up close. “His eyes are beautiful,” he thinks. Jeonghan notices the heavy accent from him, but he is not quite sure where the accent is from. He concludes that the man might only be a visitor in their town.

  
“I’m looking for a milk that my baby can drink. I’m not sure which of these can be drank by him,” the man says with a small pout.

  
The employee feels his heart drop for a moment. “ _He has a child? He doesn’t look like he’s any older than me, though_ ,” Jeonghan debates with himself in his mind before snapping out of it and answering the man’s question. “How old is he?”

  
The guy’s pout disappears and turns into a bright smile. “He’s turning 3 years old next week. I wanna treat him something, but unfortunately, I am a broke college student.” He laughs at his statement.

  
Jeonghan will never admit that he feels weak whenever the guy flashes his smile. He chuckles back at the customer’s statement. “Your partner not helping you?” He asks, wondering if what he just said was too personal. He mentally bites his lips at the thought.

  
Another smile appears from the man’s lips. “Nope. I am a happy single parent.” He states proudly and offers his hand to Jeonghan. “I’m Joshua by the way.”

  
Jeonghan is not sure why his heart suddenly beat twice as fast as it usually beats. Is it the fact that the customer is single or the fact that he knows his name now? Whatever the reason is, he is happy. He eagerly accepts the hand of Joshua and answers “I’m Jeonghan. Nice to meet you.”

  
They shake hands and pull away. “So, which milk?” Joshua asks chuckling.

  
He gives Joshua a small smile and thinks. “Hmmm, for a three-year-old boy? I would definitely say that he should be drinking milk formulas instead of carton milks. It’ll help strengthen their bones so they can run and play better.” Jeonghan laughs at himself in his head. Since when did he become a pediatrician, recommending milks to random attractive strangers? He doesn’t know.

  
Joshua nods in agreement. “My baby does have a hard time going down the stairs. It must be that, or he’s just really scared of falling down.” He smiles at the thought of his son.

  
With all the smiles Joshua is flashing, Jeonghan swoons over him. It doesn’t help that the reason why Joshua is so smiley is because of his kid. It made Jeonghan adore him more. Jeonghan has always loved kids since he had a baby sister. He loves playing with kids and so does his sister. They would sometimes volunteer at a daycare center when they are both free.

  
If he is ever to date Joshua, he thinks, he would love to play with his kid.

  
“Let me show you where the milk formulas can be found,” Jeonghan offers.

  
Joshua nods and follows where Jeonghan was heading to, which was the aisle next to where they were initially. Joshua laughs. “Wow, that was a long walk,” he jokes.

Jeonghan chuckles. “I’m glad you didn’t get tired,” he jokes back.

  
“Thanks for your help, Jeonghan.” Joshua says and looks at all the milk formulas on the shelf, checking the nutrition facts and the ingredients.

Jeonghan doesn’t want to go back and sort any more boxes, and he really wants to know Joshua more. After 3 awkward minutes of silence between them, he starts the conversation again. “So, you mentioned you are still in college?”

  
Joshua looks at him in shock. “Oh! You’re still there. I thought you already left,” Joshua states with a sorry voice. “Sorry, I was too busy reading the labels here.” Joshua bites his lower lip.

  
Jeonghan shakes his head. “No, no! It’s okay. Actually, I should really go back to work, but here I am slacking off,” he honestly says. Joshua laughs at what he said. Jeonghan swears he has never heard a laugh that angelic. “If anything, I should be sorry that I might be bothering you.”

  
It was Joshua’s turn to disagree. “No, I think you’re a fun company.” He shows a small smile. “And yeah, I’m still in college. I’m actually an exchange student from University of California. I’ll be spending a semester at Seoul University.”

  
“Really? That’s where I study!” Jeonghan exclaims. Joshua’s eyes widen at his enthusiasm. Jeonghan chuckles, embarrassed. “Sorry, I got excited. It’s just… wow, what a small world. What are you taking up?”

  
Joshua chuckles back. “I am taking up Business Management, and don’t worry, you’re cute when you’re excited.” Joshua looks away from Jeonghan shyly.

  
Jeonghan smiles at Joshua’s flustered face. “ _Is he flirting with me?_ ” He decides to break the silence the comment brought. “So, your son. How did you get him?”

  
Joshua looks at him with sparkling eyes and a full beaming smile. “I actually just found him on the streets of Downtown Los Angeles one day. He was so cute, and I felt so sad for him that I just took him home.”

  
“Woah. So your mom was cool with it? You bringing home a baby?” Jeonghan asks in confusion and amazement. It’s very rare for someone to have such a big heart to accept another mouth to feed in their house. He thinks Joshua is such a loving person and his mom is an understanding mother.

  
Joshua scrunches his nose. “Well, I did bring him back to my dorms that time, since I don’t know how my mom will react, but I brought him back to the house on Thanksgiving, and she loved him.”

  
Suddenly a phone rings. Joshua reaches for his in his pocket. He looks at his phone with a surprised face and turns off the noise from the mobile device. He puts back his phone and looks at Jeonghan with an apologetic face. “Sorry, that was my alarm. I need to go back to my dorm now.”

  
“No, it’s okay! I understand. Probably dad duties,” Jeonghan says with a small laugh.

  
Joshua shakes his head in disagreement. “Actually, I had an agreement with my roommate that we meet before sun down so we can fix a few stuff back at the dorm.” He looks at Jeonghan with sincere eyes. “It was nice talking to you, Jeonghan.”

  
Before Jeonghan could say anything, Joshua went on his way to leave the supermarket. Jeonghan starts to panic. Is he really letting go of this chance to be with someone he genuinely found interesting? No, he isn’t. But what about his son? Is Jeonghan ready to be an uncle to the kid? Jeonghan loves kids, and he’s not even sure if he and Joshua would last for a long time. Is he willing to risk it?

  
“ _Yes._ ”

  
Jeonghan finds himself running after Joshua. He spots the lad just a few steps before the exit. He runs as quickly as he can, not minding if he can be seen by his coworkers leaving his post. He catches Joshua just before he steps out and taps on his right shoulder.

  
Joshua looks back at him, eyes filled with shock as soon as he sees the employee. “Jeonghan? What are you doing here?”

  
He does not know what to say. Jeonghan mutters some “ah,” “uhm,” and a laugh out of his embarrassment before he recollects his thoughts. He remembers Joshua’s son and smiles as he thought of the perfect excuse. “You said your son is turning three next week, right?”

  
Joshua nods. “Why?”

  
“I was wondering if maybe I can visit him on his special day,” Jeonghan says softly. Joshua eyes him with suspicion, so Jeonghan continues. “I mean, I love kids and playing with them. I’ve always adored them since I had my baby sister. Maybe I can spend time with your son too? I swear I’m not a creepy stalker or anything.”

  
It takes Joshua a while to fully comprehend what Jeonghan was saying. Once he did, he laughs loudly, eyes disappearing due to his cheeks lifting upwards. Jeonghan shows him a face of confusion. He doesn’t remember saying anything funny. “So what you’re saying to me is,” Joshua says after letting his laugh die down. “You want to meet my kid and play with him. Like play with him with toys like cars and robots?” Joshua asks him with an amused look.

  
Jeonghan nods nonchalantly, still confused to why Joshua was suddenly so happy.

  
“Jeonghan, if this is just an attempt for you to get on my good side so you can ask me out, it’s cute, but my son—”

  
Jeonghan cuts Joshua off from his statement. “No! That’s… well, that is my goal. Initially, I was just planning to ask you out, but I realized that I also really want to meet your son too. I’d like to get to know a part of you that I really find interesting. It’s not every day that I meet someone who took in an abandoned child without any hesitations.” Jeonghan smiles softly. “I wanna know you better, Joshua. If you allow me to, then I would like to spend a day with you and your cute baby boy.”

  
Joshua sees the sincerity in Jeonghan’s eyes when he said those words. With a smirk in his face, he replies to Jeonghan, “Alright. I guess you’re invited to his birthday next week then.”

 

 

The week after Jeonghan and Joshua exchanged numbers went by very quickly. Jeonghan has skipped his duty at work today to go to Joshua’s dormitory and celebrate his son’s birthday with him. He goes to a bakery to pick up the chocolate cake he ordered for the toddler and is now driving to the address Joshua texted him a few hours after he got his number.

  
The week was pretty nice to Jeonghan. Work was still awful, but he has something to look forward to. Talking to Joshua over the phone was always a trip to the ER for Jeonghan because his heart kept raising at Joshua’s cute replies. He was bad at keeping conversations alive, but it seemed so easy to maintain when he’s talking to the milk customer he met a week ago. Joshua still sends him a “I still can’t believe you asked me out that way” and a “Wow, you’re really serious about meeting my child” messages to him, which Jeonghan found embarrassingly adorable.

  
Embarrassing for his part, he clears. Jeonghan can’t believe himself either. He really wants to forget all those things ever happened and just wants to believe that he met Joshua through Tinder and they’re meeting for the first time today, but he knows Joshua won’t let him live and will remind him of that moment.

  
Thanks to those thoughts in his head, he doesn’t notice that he’s only a few minutes away from the dormitory. Nerves start to enter Jeonghan’s system. It’s his first “date” with Joshua, so he really wants to make a good impression. He worries that Joshua might see him only as a friend which might explain why he was laughing when he invited himself to this party. He sighs the anxiety away as he finds a spot at the dorm’s parking lot.

  
He texts Joshua that he’s parked his car, and Joshua replies with “K. I’ll meet you there. 😊”

  
Joshua arrives in no less than three minutes, and he spots Jeonghan immediately. He walks up to the boy and says “Hello, you.” He matches it with a sweet smile.

Jeonghan feels his heart go weak and smiles back. “Hey.” He lifts the box in his hands. “I brought cake. I don’t know what flavor he likes, so I bought chocolate. Who doesn’t like chocolate, right?”

  
The other man pursed his lips. “Uhm, I don’t let him eat chocolate,” Joshua says and sees Jeonghan’s smile drop slowly. He lifts Jeonghan’s chin and smiles at him. “Don’t worry. We can eat it together later. And I can share the rest with my roommate.”

  
Jeonghan pouts, enjoying the slight attention and care Joshua is showing him. “You sure he won’t get jealous when we eat the cake with him?”

  
Joshua laughs and starts walking to their room. Jeonghan follows him. “I’m pretty sure he won’t get jealous.”

  
They make their way to Joshua’s room in a comfortable silence. Jeonghan looks around the place in genuine curiosity. He still goes back home every day after his schedule in university, which takes a lot of his time. He’s considering moving in his last year so he doesn’t get overwhelmed with his hectic schedule and the stress of driving.

  
Joshua notices his wandering eyes and asks, “Like it here?”

  
Jeonghan jolts at Joshua’s sudden voice. He nods. “Yeah. I’m considering moving to closer to the university next semester,” he tells Joshua.

  
“Right. Senior year can get really stressful.” Joshua looks at him. “I can ask around if I can get you a place around here.”

  
Jeonghan smiles at his offer. “Thanks. You must have connections here then. You got to share your space with only one person and bring your child with you.”

  
He chuckles at Jeonghan’s comment. “UCLA found this dorm for me and paid for it too. So yeah, connections.” He makes a quotation mark with his fingers when he said ‘connections’ to give emphasis to it.

  
The two of them arrive at the room, and Joshua opens the door. Jeonghan wonders why there isn’t any noise or any decorations in their room, but he remembers that Joshua said he doesn’t have money to celebrate the boy’s birthday.

  
Speaking of which, Jeonghan also wonders where the boy is. “Where is he?” Jeonghan asks.

  
Joshua chuckles. “Wait here. He’ll be out. He’s just shy.” He grabs the cake in Jeonghan’s hand. “Come in. Make yourself at home. I’ll just get the cake ready,” he says and proceeds to the kitchen.

  
Jeonghan slowly makes his way at the small, 2-seater, beige sofa at the side and sits down. He takes out his phone to entertain himself.

He hears a small bark from where Joshua is. Jeonghan looks at where the noise was coming from, and out comes a tiny brown ball of fluff, a Pomeranian, running towards Jeonghan.

  
He drops his phone at his side, smiles widely at the dog and picks it up as soon as it reaches Jeonghan’s feet. The dog licks Jeonghan’s face, and he laughs out loud. Joshua comes in a few seconds later with two plates of chocolate cake in his hands.

  
“I see you’ve met my son,” Joshua says with a mischievous grin.

  
Jeonghan freezes. Joshua’s son? A dog? “What… what do you mean?”

  
Joshua laughs. “Don’t be rude. It’s Meongie’s 3rd birthday today. Greet him!”

  
“You mean…” Jeonghan loses grip of the dog, trying to understand what was happening. His eyebrows meet, and he stand up. “You tricked me!” Jeonghan shyly and cutely shouts at Joshua.

  
The dog owner can’t stop his laughter. “Sorry, it’s just,” he says in the middle of laughing. “You looked so cute when you said you really want to know my baby. I tried telling you that he was a dog, but you cut me off,” he manages to say all those words while chuckling. “You were so pure and sincere that I couldn't tell you the truth. So I thought I’d ride with it.”

  
Jeonghan’s mouth was open, and his eyes still scream confusion. “B-but, you… you were looking for milk! Formulas for baby humans!”

  
“Jeonghan, you were at the kibbles and pet food area and assisted me to the animal's milk section. I thought you had a hint that my baby was not a human being,” Joshua explains with humor.

  
Jeonghan sits down at the sofa, taking in all the information he was just fed by Joshua. Was he really that oblivious? He remembers now that the violet boxes he was tagging were not cereals but cat biscuits. He met Joshua at the animal needs aisle. He stares into space while massaging his forehead.

Joshua brings the plate of chocolate cake in front of Jeonghan. Jeonghan gives a small smile, looks at Joshua’s apologetic face, and accepts the plate. “I feel so dumb right now.”

  
Joshua holds his arm in comfort. “Don’t. I’m so sorry, Jeonghan.” Joshua gives him a one-arm hug. Jeonghan slightly shivers at his touch. Joshua adds “If it counts, I found it really sweet that you’re still interested in me even if you knew that I had a kid.”

  
He just nods at Joshua's reply, looks intently at the dessert in front of him and realized something. “Is that why you said you don’t allow him to eat chocolate?” Jeonghan asks.

  
Still with a big smile, Joshua nods. “Yeah, I don’t want him to die." He chuckles. "I didn't say a single lie to you when I described him. I guess… yeah, in some way, I do feel like I’m raising a kid.” 

  
Jeonghan breathes out a loud sigh. “I guess I’m not as smart as I think I am,” he says and chuckles.

  
Meongie barks in between their conversation. Joshua lifts him up to his lap and strokes his fur. Jeonghan stares at the innocent black eyes that belong to the pet. He looks at how smiley Joshua is while taking care of Meongie in his lap. He also sees how Joshua is so fond of the little furball.

  
Jeonghan’s hand makes its way to pet Meongie on the head. “Happy birthday, Joshua’s baby.” He laughs after saying that. Joshua smiles at Jeonghan. It melts his heart immediately.

  
Jeonghan stares at Joshua’s dark brown orbs, bites his lips, and says, “Maybe I can be your baby too?”

**Author's Note:**

> 3000+ word vomit  
> It's been years since I last uploaded my work I'm pretty nervous.  
> So I came up with this because I got a new teddy bear and told everyone that I have a son now. They were all shocked. 
> 
> This wasn't proofread, so sorry for errors!!!


End file.
